1-3-03

Harry Neal Boone... "was born on March 3, 1898 at the family ranch in Lewis County, Wash. Was one of eight children, four boys and four girls" (Harry, Jenny, DeHart, Ruth, James, Daniel, Lucille, Anna). "His father's name was Martin, and his mother's name was Margaret. His father died when my Dad was 16, and the mother was left to raise the children; the youngest was just a baby. The ranch consisted mostly dairy cows, and in later years when we went to visit I remember chickens, and large vegetable gardens. No running water in the house, and no electricity. No bathroom. I remember a large round galvanized tub, kept in the pantry, where they heated water on the wood stove to put in the tub, and family members took turns bathing, usually on Sat. nights. Jack, my brother, and I always loved going out to the ranch, as there was always so much going on. There was always a dog trained to go out in the fields to bring the cows in the barn mornings and evenings for milking. Also lots of cats, living in the barn to keep the mouse population under control, and they would all line up, across from the milking operation, to get their share of milk which would be squirted in their direction by the men doing milking. I, especially, always loved to go in the incubator room, where the newborn chicks were kept. My mother and father met on a blind date. Mother was supposed to go out with Dad's brother, Dan, but she accidentally got in the seat with Dad, and no one told her she was in the wrong seat, so they just left it that way, and the rest is history!
They were married on March 31, 1920, and I was born on March 24, 1921. I remember Dad as being pretty strict, but very loving. When Jack and I were small we always crawled in bed with him on Sundays, while Mother cooked breakfast, and he would read the funny papers to us. One morning, when I crawled in beside him, he looked at me and said, "What's wrong with your face?" Well, I had the measles, that was what was wrong! One time, when I was in the first grade, I was talking when I should have been listening, and the teacher turned me over my desk, and paddled me. Corporal punishment was in in those days. I wasn't physically hurt as much as I feared that Dad would hear of it, so I bribed my girlfriend, for months, not to tell, so if I had a piece of candy or cake in my lunch she got it.
When we came to Calif., in 1929, in the beginning of the great depression, and so many men were out of a job, Dad was able to find one almost immediately in a slaughter house. Two days later federal police showed up and arrested everyone because they were killing cattle that hadn't been inspected. Fortunately, the owner spoke up and told them that Dad didn't know about the operation, since he had just started working there, so he got to come home that night instead of going to jail. After that experience, Dad heard about a market that was for sale in Pomona, so he decided to go into business for himself, depression or no depression. For a long time he, and one other market, were the only ones in town; all others had gone bankrupt. From then on, we rarely saw Dad, as he would be gone to open the store mornings before we were awake, and came home after we were asleep at night. I think he was able to stay in business because of hard hard work, and he supplied almost all of the restaurants in town.
When I was in junior high, and getting ready to graduate from the ninth grade, Dad took a rare day off to see the ceremony. Out of each graduating class one boy and one girl is chosen to receive the American Legion award, and a prominent member of the community comes to the school to present the awards. I received it, and when I finally started off the stage and glanced over to where my parents were sitting mother was beaming and Dad had tears streaming down his face. I stopped feeling nervous and embarrassed, and finally managed to feel proud. The only other time I saw tears in Dad's eyes was the Christmas Eve that I received my engagement ring. Mother did say he had tears in his eye when she told him I had just had twin boys.
One other memory of Dad was that he always got up at night with Jack or I , even if we just thought we saw a monster lurking in the darkness, and asked for a drink of water so we could get a look when the light was on. I had a lot of earaches as a young child, and Dad would get up to try and soothe it with heat. So, even though we didn't see much of him during the day, I always knew he was there for me at night.
It was a terrible shock for me when my parents were divorced after Dad retired. They had been so busy making a living, and getting ahead financially, they didn't realized they had very little in common. Dad had dreamed all of his life that he wanted to buy a boat and travel to Alaska, or where ever his fancy took him, and Mother had always been deathly afraid of water deeper than her ankles. Thank goodness they both married people who enjoyed the same life style as they did, and the friends they each had. They remained good friends. Mother used to go shopping with Elsie and Dad would play golf with Harvey. People thought their relationship , after divorce, was pretty strange, but it certainly made things better for us.
Dad passed away of heart trouble at the age of 67."